[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
This week I asked you to do some very weird stuff, which will hopefully help bend your mind into shape going forward.
Made lots of stretchy and emotive faces at home in the mirror.
Learned how to do corrective makeup for your face.
Next week we will be starting on a three week set of age makeup lessons, so you should start now at looking a old people faces (particularly those who are related to you) to mentally prepare you for this all-important section of the class!
You will find the weeks going forward will tend to follow a steady and simple pattern, where you get to play with your face:
You will always watch an assigned video, and then choose from some supplemental videos to adapt the instructions to your face.
You will usually be assigned to do a little bit of research online to find images to inspire you.
You will usually be assigned to draw what you plan to do on one of your Face Outline Sheets
You will always be assigned to do a makeup on yourself or on a human model you provide.
We will always do a brief photo shoot to get good pictures of your makeup, (or you will do one at home.)
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
Step 1: Make lines on your selfie
Using a very narrow black pen or sharp pencil (Don’t use a regular Sharpie!) take your 8.5×11 printer paper selfie print and mark edges that may be hard to define once the paper is flipped. Mark the bottom edge of chin, eyebrow outline, and details of the eyes. If your hair is close to your skin color mark your hairline also.
(Special note: if you have a tablet and love the free app You Doodle (or another similar app) you can do this process on that app. You also are allowed, but not required, to do makeup renderings on your computer.)
On the nose go around the outer curl of the nostrils as shown, and do the gull wing “V” line of the tip of the nose. Do not join the nostril curls and “V” line either here or later on the other side, or your nose will look weird and knobby on your Outline Sheet. Finally mark the bridge of your nose by running lines slightly inside the two sides of the shadows on the sides of your nose as shown here, don’t connect to the nostril curls, or this will look odd:
Step 2: Flip your photo
Take your photo and flip it around to the blank side and tape it to a window (or lay it on a light board if you own one). This will make your face outline sheet a backwards version of your face, the same way you see your face in the mirror. If you are making a face outline for you doing makeup on a friend/actor put a sheet of paper over the front of the photo and tape both sheets to the window so the sheet comes out frontways.
Step 3: Draw outlines & eyes
Draw a simple outline on the back of the photo for the outline of the face. Put in light, vague suggestions of hair, neck and shoulders. Put in details of the eyes, but don’t put in heavy lines or every single eyelash. Put a light dotted line where the outline of the eyebrow was drawn on the other side. When you do makeup you may cover and “move” your eyebrows, so a dotted line will make your makeup renderings avoid having two obvious sets of eyebrows
Step 4: Draw the nose and mouth
Draw the lines of the nose as you did them on the other side. Remember not to join the curls of the nostril to the “V” of the tip of the nose. You want minimal lines. Lips are another area that moves with makeup. Draw another dotted line around the lips, (or a very thin line) where you marked your guideline on the other side so if you increase or decrease the shape of your mouth, you don’t get the outline lips to overpower your lip color/outline on your Makeup Renderings.
Step 5: Scan your outline
Take the page off of the window and scan it so you can make more copies. If you don’t have a printer/scanner, there are lots of free and easy phone scanner apps you can use. I photographed this one on my phone (see at right) then ran it through the free version of of the Adobe Scan app to make a more high contrast PDF that is easy to send to a printer:
You can send a jpg, gif, or a pdf in the next step.
Step 6: Upload
Upload a copy of your face outline sheet below for points
Step 7: Make Copies
For your own use in class you will want to have multiple copies of these for your projects (at least 15). And most weeks thereafter, you will do a makeup rendering (color sketch) using one of these sheets before you do your makeup. I recommend printing copies on card stock in beige, white, tan or “brown paper” color depending on your preference.
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
These are a small sample of hundreds of face outline sheets I have made for the face to face class. On the first day of the F2F class I take a hideous “deer in headlights” photo of the student that I print in B&W and trace from the reverse side to make an outline. You can print one of these if you have an emergency where your toddler chews on all your copies, or you dog poos on them, or vice versa. You can also see how wildly different face shapes, eye shapes, eyebrows, noses etc are and why it often really helps to do your makeup plans on a sheet that looks like you, instead of looking like this.
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
Making a collage:
Once you have practiced making funny faces for a while you can make an extra credit PicCollage. of your faces and get up to 10 points for it. This is not required, this is just a fun way to get spare points.
You can choose to do a series of exaggerated emotions like the set I do here, ————->
or you can do a series of face stretches where you focus on the particular muscles that move the parts of your face.
Need Help with Face Stretching?
If you are still having trouble doing face stretches there are two European acting teachers in the video below who will teach you how to flex your face like putty (this is a funny video, but you mainly need it if you are having difficulty with flexing your face and want to learn more of how to do this):
This type of exercise can let you make all sorts of face muscle stretches like this:
How to do this project:
Take your phone and take a lot of pictures of your face as you try to pull each of the muscles of your face as far as you can. Try to:
Raise both your eyebrows as high as they can go
Lift one eyebrow
Crunch your brows close together like you have a terrible headache
Make you eyes wide and big as possible
Crunch up your nose like you smell something very bad
Raise one nostril
Grin as wide as you can with teeth clenched
Pull your lips into a small pucker
Try to touch your nose with your upper lip
Pull the corners of your mouth down and your lower lip out
Try to crinkle the corners of your eyes.
Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t do movement as extreme as I do. I am now over 60 and I have been practicing pulling faces in the mirror since I was 2 (and I still can’t lift just one eyebrow). Results will vary by where you grew up, who you grew up with, your temperament, your family, your facial expression recognition, your friends, your genes, and your age. Most of all it will vary by practice. The more you do it the better you will get at it.
If on the other hand, you are still having fun:
I suggest you watch Jason Hewlett, a man who has made a very successful performing career built on the foundation of being able to do this (Watch this one even if you don’t think you “need” it, as it will teach you face tricks you likely have not seen before, with an explanation of how to eventually do them):
His motivational speaker talks are even better. But now it is time to…
Take photos of emotions:
Then do a series of photos where you try to show the most extreme emotion you can show. There is a list below to give you ideas. If you have a neurological difficulty recognizing just facial expressions, you can try copying them from this awesome Emotions and Facial Expressions chart.
There is also a handy lecture on the 7 “Universal” facial expressions, that will demonstrate them for you. While most of you are lucky enough to just understand intuitively what they mean, it is very helpful for actors and for life in general if you know exactly what muscles you need to move to correctly to “fake” these emotions on cue. One of the most important skills to learn in life, and one most people do not learn, is how to “fake” the smile of genuine enjoyment on cue, simply by doing the correct eye-crinkle. Being able to flash this at people when they need reassurance (or on stage) is a great way for getting people to like you. The best bit is when you do it, it bio-feedbacks to your own brain as well and actually makes you feel a little bit good too:
However, you need more than 7 emotions for a good face grid, so to try to do:
Joy
Fear
Anger
Sadness
Confusion
Contempt
Disgust
Smugness
Surprise
WTF?
Amusement
Annoyance
Dislike
etc.
Choose your collage theme:
Look through the photos and decide which of the two groups you want to use for your collage:
Making the collage on your phone:
Download the free version of the phone app PicCollage, or any other free (and easy to use) collage-maker app you can find to work with your phone, tablet or laptop.
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
In class I (and eventually the TA’s) will take your photos for you in the hallway. However, if at some point you miss a week and need to catch up at home, you should come back here and re-watch this video, or if a member of your household will mostly take your photos, make them watch this too:
If you know you will be doing several projects at home, try to find some of of the useful objects (black t-shirt, etc) that may help you to make better pictures in the coming weeks.
Here is an optional video on how to make a good acting head shot:
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
By this week you conveniently have a copy of your face outline sheet. This outline can help you to work out what is your face shape. Compare your face shape to the following tutorials:
When you think you know your face shape, do an online search for “How to contour for a fill in the blank shape face. ” You can also try looking at Pinterest Contouring Tutorials. Gather together face chart source material for inspiration. The internet is filled with TONS of great how to pages and videos on this topic so you can easily learn more. Copy a part of your research (photo, link, etc) and submit below to get credit. Remember afterwards to also to save your research for putting in your Makeup Morgue Assignment so you build up your morgue gradually and easily over the course of the semester. Use information from your search for contour advice/charts to inform your plans for your “corrective” makeup.
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
This is the official class how-to video, naturally, it is an awesome how-to for a “corrective” style makeup for a white woman in her late 40s, with a rectangular face, short nose, and scary eyebrows (me when I recorded it). However, if you are not these things, you may well wish to watch other videos, either in addition to, or in place of this official one:
Happily, I have found a number of other videos of different sorts of basic theatrical makeup for different types of performance and different types of faces! Scroll down to see if you find any you think you’d like to watch!
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
This week you will be learning how to do “Corrective” Makeup , sometimes called Straight Makeup. This is the makeup you do when you are on stage and just trying to look generally nice, and not doing a lot of aging or character work to look a great deal different from yourself. You will be highlighting and shadowing a bit, and “correcting” things that are distinctive enough about your face that they could make you stand out too much in a chorus line.
Before we do this, I wish to again remind you, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR FACE. “Corrective” makeup “fixes” things that might make you stand out too much in the back of the chorus. You won’t be using it if you are blessed by playing Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, or Gloucester in Richard III, the Fool in Lear, or Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd. “Corrective” makeup is for looking bland, pretty and young. It is super useful for that (especially as you get older), but it is not fixing something “wrong”, it is making you look bland, pretty and young. That’s it.
While this video is not actually a tutorial on contour/”corrective” makeup, it is a pretty splendid, occasionally profane comedy riff on what “contour” is for in the real world.
This week you will watch a video in class or online where I show you how I do my “corrective” makeup, or IF YOU CHOOSE, you may instead (or in addition to) select one or more other videos I have linked here online where people closer to your age, gender identity or coloration do their Straight Makeup or “Corrective” Makeup.
You will then be assigned to go online and research “corrective” makeup tips especially helpful for faces in your shape, gender identity, and skin color range. To help with this, I have made a page of useful links and videos that you can use to start mining for much of the information you need.
If you are in Group 1 you will do a “Corrective” makeup in class on Wednesday, if in group 2 you will do it the following Monday. Have me take your photos before you leave, which I will post to the group album or text to you as you request.
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
This Week’s Learning Objectives:
Outcomes we will use to get there:
Learn basic straight/”corrective” makeup needed for many stage roles. Learn to take better photos for your portfolio. Bond with your fellow students in a less tedious way than class zooms or message boards. Start to develop a portfolio for job-hunting.
Do a straight/”corrective” makeup on your face (or that of a volunteer). Watch how-to videos and take headshots based on the lessons. Start making and sharing “Pass-the-Brush” videos. Post your projects to Portfolium.
[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC. If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need for your classes].
•Fill in Date: Group 1: View “Corrective” and Your Self Only More So Videos in the Men’s Dressing Room. Group 2: Watch The Human Face Part 1
•HOMEWORK: GO ONLINE AND RESEARCH CORRECTIVE MAKEUP TIPS ESPECIALLY HELPFUL FOR FACES IN YOUR SHAPE, GENDER IDENTITY, AND COLOR RANGE.
•Fill in Date: Group 1: Bring in evidence of research on “Corrective” makeup. “Corrective” Makeup, completed in class. Group 2: View “Corrective”and Your Self Only More So Videos in the Men’s Dressing Room.
NOTE: Fill in Date IS THE LAST DAY TO DROP WITH A REFUND!
And, as always, post your photos of all assignments to the Canvas assignment pages so I remember to give you points!
